There’s probably some “standard procedures” when bringing in U18 players to get them acclimated to Dortmund. Seems like it’s going to be the same feeling we got last year when Sargent was killing it with the Bremen youth team and we thought he should be with the first team.
**Hmmm, I’m a little worried about Reyna’s mentality, seems like he coasted the final 87 minutes. ** sarcasm alert
Gio Reyna scores in 1st minute of competitive debut, adds assist in 2nd minute as Borussia Dortmund wins 9-2 at Wuppertal in U19 season opener. Star is 14-year-old (!) Youssoufa Moukoko with six goals. pic.twitter.com/XBtBQVEaUd— Paul Kennedy (@pkedit) August 11, 2019
I feel like Moukoko has been 14 for like three years. (This is not an African Birth Certificate comment -- I feel like I've been hearing about him for ages, and he's always been 14.)
Yeah, I think the club should get him a bone scan and nip this in the bud. If it turns out his age is falsified then so be it; better to get it over with now while he's still in the youth ranks. Otherwise these allegations are going to dog him his entire career.
I'd think they'd be happier if he was 15 or 16. Means he's actually closer to being able to play for them as opposed to having to wait 2+ years.
Moukoko scored 50 goals in 28 games for the Dortmund U17s last year as a 13 yr old. At his present rate, he will exceed Messi. https://www.espn.com/soccer/borussia-dortmund/story/3919504/dortmund-wonderkid14nets-six-for-u19s
Personally I think his age is falsified but not for sporting reasons. I doubt he's any older than 17 max, and there's no questioning his genuine talent. He's not running over players, he's just miles ahead technically and mentally. He will get dogged by these allegations his entire career and I don't think there's any way of avoiding it.
And while being younger helps you in terms of how you are viewed as a talent and in competing against younger players, it also gets in the way of cashing in since you can't move to a big club outside Germany until you are 16.
Want to see Gio score? Want to see Moukoko score (a lot)? Go to 8:15 of this video: https://tv.dfb.de/video/1-spieltag-a-junioren-bundesliga-alle-spiele-alle-tore/25864/
Witsel is not super tall. Listed at 6'1. So probably about 6 foot. It's his hair that makes him look so tall. I actually asked my buddy about this who was at the match in South Bend. He confirmed Gio and Axel are about the same height. He also says Sancho is about 5'9.
The thing is, even one of Dortmund's own youth coaches has cast doubt on his age. And the German government won't vouch for the claims his dad is making either: Claims from his father that he had requested to register Youssoufa at the German consulate in Yaounde were denied by the foreign office, and only in 2016 did Moukoko acquire a German birth certificate. Probably. But I think resolving the issue now while he's still in the youth ranks would lessen the fallout. If his age turns out to be false then it's better to get the bad publicity out of the way early in his career, while he's still a youngster, than to be seen as carrying a lie through adulthood. I can also see this becoming an issue if he continues to represent Germany in youth competitions, with opponents potentially lodging complaints.
I hope we can steer the conversation back to Reyna, but perhaps one of the younger, single posters here could help you work on your online dating profile.
His mom is 30 and that it exactly why I think the age is falsified. It's one thing for a 54 year old man to impregnate a 16 year old (but still pretty bad!). It's another thing entirely for a 51 year old man to impregnate an 13 year old. It's not unheard of and it's certainly the kind of thing that a person would have a deeply vested interest in covering up and denying. The whole situation is sketchy to me but it doesn't change the fact that Moukoko is a generational talent, whether he's 14, 19, or anywhere in between.
Yeah, sorry my mistake. The article I was reading about him had a 2 year old quote from his Dad saying she was 28.
You know, Beethoven's father paraded little Ludwig around claiming he was several years younger than his actual age, all in an attempt to make money off him as a child prodigy, like WA Mozart's father did. It's an old, old trick. Crappy parents.* Moukoko has soooo much talent- if he's actually a few years older, he'll still be awesome and (as noted above), that much closer to playing real games. Right now, he's potentially killing the back end of his career - not good. * A lot of people argue that for LvB and WAM (in particular), it was their horrible relationship with their fathers that drove their genius. Maybe that genius doesn't reach its level without that pain to push it. Maybe. Maybe they could have been even better if they'd had better support. We will never know, but damn they left us some good music.